Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said his country would confront the Israeli regime’s attempts “to set the region on fire,” addressing Tel Aviv’s ongoing incendiary acts of deadly aggression against the regional countries.
The chief executive made the remarks in the capital Ankara on Wednesday in a speech marking the foundation of his Justice and Development (AK) Party.
“We will fight until the genocidal killers, who spilled the blood of over 40,000 innocents in Gaza, are held accountable under the law,” he added.
Erdogan was referring to the fatalities that have been resulted from the regime’s October 2023-present war against the Gaza Strip.
His remarks also came amid the regime’s attacks against Lebanon that have witnessed a significant escalation since the onset of the Gaza war. At least 547 Lebanese people have been killed in the attacks that Tel Aviv has threatened repeatedly to intensify into another wholesale war against the country.
Taking its acts of regional escalation to yet another confrontational level, the regime assassinated Fuad Shukr, a senior commander of the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah, and Ismail Haniyeh, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas’ Political Bureau chief, late last month. The resistance figures were martyred in separate targeted killing operations that were carried out against the Lebanese capital Beirut and the Iranian capital Tehran.
Meeting with Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in Ankara last week, Erdogan said the regime’s assassination of the Hamas’ leader “once again demonstrated Israel's lack of intention to engage in a ceasefire."
Last Wednesday, Turkey submitted an official request to join a genocide case that was initiated by South Africa against Tel Aviv at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) last year.
Commenting on the request at the time, the Turkish foreign ministry said Ankara’s “decision to intervene reflects the importance our country attaches to resolving the Palestinian issue within the framework of law and justice.”